IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, VOL. 4, NO.

1, JANUARY 2013 31

A Methodology for Transforming an Existing

Distribution Network Into a Sustainable
Autonomous Micro-Grid
M. Venkata Kirthiga, S. Arul Daniel, Member, IEEE, and S. Gurunathan

Abstract—A distribution network with renewable and Maximum limit on the bus voltage magnitude.
fossil-based resources can be operated as a micro-grid, in au-
tonomous or nonautonomous modes. Autonomous operation of a Minimum limit on the bus voltage magnitude.
distribution network requires cautious planning. In this context,
a detailed methodology to develop a sustainable autonomous Magnitude of the voltage at the th bus.
micro-grid is presented in this paper. The proposed methodology Maximum bus voltage magnitude at th bus of
suggests novel sizing and siting strategies for distributed gener-
the system.
ators and structural modifications for autonomous micro-grids.
The optimal sites and corresponding sizes of renewable resources Minimum bus voltage magnitude at the th bus
for autonomous operation are obtained using particle swarm op- of the system.
timization and genetic algorithm-based optimization techniques.
Structural modifications based on ranking of buses have been at- , Total real power demand in summer and winter,
tempted for improving the voltage profile of the system, resulting respectively.
in reduction of real power distribution losses. The proposed
methodology is adopted for a standard 33-bus distribution system , Total reactive power demand in summer and
to operate as an autonomous micro-grid. Results confirm the winter, respectively.
usefulness of the proposed approach in transforming an existing
radial distribution network into an autonomous micro-grid. Number of buses in the distribution system.
Index Terms—Distributed power generation, load flow, power Number of distributed generator (DG) locations
generation planning. (sites).

NOMENCLATURE
I. INTRODUCTION
Real power rating of the th generator.
Maximum generation limit on the th generator.
Minimum generation limit on the th generator.
I N modern power distribution systems, integrating small
nonconventional generation sources has become attractive.
These technologies have less environmental impact, easy
Reactive power rating of the th generator. siting, high efficiency, enhanced system reliability and security,
Cost coefficient of the renewable energy source improved power quality, lower operating costs due to peak
at the th bus. shaving, and relieved transmission and distribution congestion
[1]. The distributed generator (DG) units used are highly
Current drawn from the substation feeder. modular in structure as well as helpful in providing continuous
Real power loss in line between buses and . power supply to the consumers. However, depending on the
rating and location of DG units, there is also a possibility for
Total real power generated in the system. voltage swell and an increase in losses. In this scenario, to
Total reactive power generated in the system. exploit the complete potential of distributed generation, proper
siting and sizing of DGs become important. This paper, there-
fore, attempts to develop a sizing algorithm that transforms
Manuscript received October 20, 2011; revised February 06, 2012; accepted an existing distribution network to a sustainable autonomous
April 16, 2012. Date of publication May 30, 2012; date of current version De-
system. In such an operation, the generation and corresponding
cember 12, 2012.
M. V. Kirthiga and S. A. Daniel are with the Department of Electrical and loads of the distribution network can separate from the feeder
Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli network and form a micro-grid without affecting the transmis-
620015, India (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]).
sion grid’s integrity.
S. Gurunathan was with Department of Electrical and Electronics En-
gineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India, and is Most of the current micro-grid implementations combine
now with WEG Industries of India (P) Ltd., Hosur 635109, India (e-mail: loads with sources placed at favorable sites that allow inten-
[email protected]).
tional islanding and try to use utmost the available energy [2].
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. In such an operation, stable generation and voltage profile are
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSTE.2012.2196771 necessary to independently supply power to customers [3].

1949-3029/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE

32 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, VOL. 4, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013

Hence obtaining the number of locations (sites) at which the The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Methodology
DGs are placed becomes significant. for planning an autonomous micro-grid is revealed in Section II.
In earlier works, algorithms were developed for optimal Optimal sizing of DGs and the optimization techniques used
sizing of the DG units and they pertain to nonautonomous are explained in Section III. Section IV focuses on the signif-
mode of operation of the micro-grids. Haesen et al. proposed a icance of reconfiguration in the operation of an autonomous
sizing algorithm based on minimizing the losses using genetic micro-grid. Section V depicts discussions on the results in sup-
algorithm (GA) [4]. Mallikarjuna proposed another algorithm port of the proposed methodology and its validation. Conclu-
based on simulated annealing for optimizing the size of the sions of the paper are presented in Section VI.
DGs in a micro-grid [5]. Optimal sizing based on the detailed
annualized cost calculations was also proposed [6]. Neverthe- II. PLANNING OF AUTONOMOUS MICRO-GRIDS
less, none of the above algorithms had considered autonomous
operation of the micro-grids. It is evident that transformation of an existing radial distribu-
Katiraei et al. has discussed about the autonomous opera- tion system into a sustainable autonomous micro-grid, requires
tion of micro-grids but it pertains to isolated operation of a DGs to be integrated into the network. The exact size of these
few loads on emergency operating conditions [7]. Liu [8] and generators and the optimal placement of the same in the net-
Nehrir [9] have also highlighted isolated operation of hybrid work are necessary for its autonomous operation. Hence a hi-
renewable systems. But all these earlier works do not investi- erarchical and partially heuristic methodology is attempted for
gate any autonomous micro-grid for a larger distribution net- determining the optimal sites and sizes of the generators and for
work at medium voltage level, independent of the utility grid. reconfiguring the network.
So far, a methodology for optimal siting and sizing of the DGs
A. Optimal Number and Location of DG Units
in an autonomous micro-grid is not reported in the literature.
In this context, this paper attempts to develop a sizing algo- It is mandatory that the total demand and the system losses
rithm for an autonomous operation of an existing radial distribu- need to be satisfied by the DG units connected to the distribu-
tion network, thus making it an isolated sustainable micro-grid. tion system. For obtaining the optimal number of DG units and
The constraints included in the proposed sizing algorithm are the corresponding sites for the DG placements, the following
voltage limits, demand, and generator rating limits. methodology is proposed.
In addition to sizing, this paper focuses on siting of the DGs 1) An optimization problem is formulated for minimizing the
and suggests a minimum-loss configuration for the network. distribution losses, including the constraints viz., gener-
There are many options available for reducing losses at the dis- ator rating constraint, voltage constraint, and power bal-
tribution level: reconfiguration, capacitor installation, load bal- ance constraint.
ancing, and introduction of higher voltage levels [10], [11]. 2) For “ ” generator units, the number of different possible
Nevertheless, a heuristic approach in choosing the sites for combinations of sites is , where is the total number
the DG units has been attempted in this paper for autonomous of buses in the distribution system.
micro-grids. Souza Ribeiro et al. proposed an architecture for 3) The particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is then
isolated micro-grids [12]. They have proposed programmed employed for minimizing the optimization problem, for
switching of already existing switches to reconfigure the each of the combinations, where initially “ ” is set
distribution network for stable operation as micro-grid. Two to 1.
types of switches are used in primary distribution systems viz., 4) The optimal locations corresponding to the minimal distri-
sectionalizing switches (normally closed) and TIE switches bution losses for each of the DG units are noted down for
(normally open) [13], [14]. These switches are designed for all the combinations.
both protection and configuration management resulting in cost 5) The above steps from 2 to 4 are repeated for
minimization. Optimal reconfiguration of distribution systems locations (i.e., one unit at one site to one unit each at
with DGs have also been discussed in the literature [15]–[18] sites).
but complex optimization techniques have been used to iden- 6) The minimum distribution losses and hence the corre-
tify the optimal location of TIE switches to enable additional sponding installation cost pertaining to “ ” DG locations
branches for reconfiguration. Moreover, none of these works are normalized on a ten point scale and the variation of the
on reconfiguration had an objective of autonomous operation above functions have been plotted against a varying (say
of a distribution network as a micro-grid. In this context, to ). The normalized value of the function is
reconfiguration of an existing distribution system has also been
attempted for performance improvement of an autonomous (1)
micro-grid. Ranking of the buses based on maximum loadable
limits (beyond which the voltage limits violation of buses was where
observed) has been employed to identify the nodes. Based on
this ranking, additional TIE branches are to be connected. actual value of the function;
The standard 33-bus distribution system is used for valida-
minimum and maximum value of the
tion of the algorithms proposed and MATLAB coding has been
function;
developed for implementation of the proposed algorithm.
KIRTHIGA et al.: METHODOLOGY FOR TRANSFORMING AN EXISTING DISTRIBUTION NETWORK 33

normalized value of the function; 2) Power factor controller has been assumed to be present at
each bus and hence the generator buses are modeled as
minimum and maximum values of
constant buses supplying lagging reactive power with
the normalizing range (1 and 10,
a fixed power factor of 0.85.
respectively).
3) The grid supply has been considered as a backup support
7) The number of DG sites for which both the curves intersect during emergency situations (nonavailability of DGs).
is decided as the optimal number of DG units (taking only
one DG unit at any given site), that is required to convert III. SIZING OF DISTRIBUTED GENERATORS
an existing distribution system into an autonomous micro-
grid. A. Problem Formulation
8) The siting combination pertaining to minimum distribution The minimization objective function has been formulated
losses and minimum installation cost for the DG units is with two objectives as shown in (2). corresponds to cost
decided as the optimal siting of the DG units. function of the generators and is for loss minimization
B. Optimal Sizing of the DG Units
The determination of optimal number of DG units to be in-
tegrated into the network and its placement is followed by de-
termining its optimal sizes. The detailed sizing algorithm is ex-
plained in Section III.
(2)
C. Choice of the Type of DG Units
This paper assumes that the distribution network has potential where
for harnessing renewable resources viz., solar, wind, biomass,
cost function to be minimized (I objective);
etc., and since the primary objective is optimization of sizes and
reconfiguration, the issues relating to type of DGs has not been loss function to be minimized (II objective).
taken up in this work.
In general, renewable sources driven synchronous generators Subject to
and inverter-based sources are considered and are assumed to (i) Generator rating constraint: Based on cost per unit peak
be controlled for constant power and constant power factor op- power generation, the minimum and maximum limits
eration [19]. Hence, for simplification, the interfaced resources have been imposed on the generation capacity as
have been treated as - specified sources and the bus voltages
(3)
are specified as 1.0 p.u.
(ii) Voltage constraint: The optimal sizing has to be obtained
D. Load Flow Analysis such that there are no bus voltages limits violations.
Load flow analysis of the micro-grid is necessary for ascer- Hence the following constraint is included:
taining the adequacy of the supply from the DGs and also to
determine if the required voltage profile is maintained. Avail- (4)
able literature confirms that the conventional Newton Raphson
and the fast-decoupled power flow algorithms and their mod- (iii) Power balance constraint: The variation in demand with
ifications are not suitable for solving the load flow problem seasons has been considered and the power mismatch con-
of ill-conditioned systems such as radial distribution systems straints are as follows:
[20]–[23]. The backward and forward sweep algorithm exploits
the radial nature of the distribution system and it is computa- (5)
tionally simpler and efficient [24], [25].
Hence, in this work, the basic backward and forward sweep
(6)
technique has been modified to include DG units in the distribu-
tion system and the autonomous micro-grid. The DG unit with
largest generating capacity is chosen as the Slack generator in (7)
the load flow analysis adopted for this purpose.

Assumptions Made in the Paper (8)

The following assumptions have been made in this paper for
implementing the proposed methodology: (iv) Feeder current constraint: In addition to and ,
1) Small generating units either of synchronous generators or to ensure autonomous operation, the feeder current
the inverter-based type, of generating capacity less than constraint
2 MW are connected at any location in the distribution
network. (9)
34 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, VOL. 4, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013

shown in (9) is to be satisfied (i.e., current drawn from the switches and TIE switches which are initially in closed and
feeder should be close to zero). opened positions, respectively. On reconfiguration, these posi-
The multiobjective problem has been converted to a single tions are altered resulting in the redistribution of loads among
objective function. The above constraints have been included in the branches of the system [15], [16]. This alteration in the
the main objective function without any scale factors and the loading pattern also influences the operating reliability of the
resultant unconstrained formulation is given in (10). distribution systems. This modification in the structure of the
The problem under consideration is a multiobjective function system results in modification of the real and reactive power
and hence weighted sum method has been adopted to convert it losses in the system [29]–[31]. Hence reconfiguration of an
to a single objective function, but with equal weights to both the existing distribution system has been attempted for effective
objectives viz., to minimize the total installation cost and also realization of the autonomous operation of a micro-grid formed
to minimize the total distribution losses with optimally sized DGs located at optimal sites to enhance
voltage profile improvement and distribution losses reduction.

A. Ranking of Buses Based on the Maximum Levels of Real

and Reactive Power Demands
In this paper, an algorithm has been proposed to identify the
buses between which additional branches are to be added by
operation of TIE switches thus reconfiguring the structure of the
existing radial system.
The candidate locations for placing the TIE switches has been
identified by ranking the buses based on their capability to meet
real power demands without violating the voltage limits. Real
power demands on each bus are incremented consecutively in
equal steps until voltage violations take place in any bus of the
(10)
system. The maximum real power demand in each bus (taken
one at a time), beyond which violations of voltage limits take
B. Sizing Algorithms place is noted and tabulated (as shown in Table III). The vio-
lation of voltage limits ( 5%) decides the maximum level up
Two nontraditional optimization techniques have been
to which the real power demands have been increased on a par-
adopted in this paper to minimize the objective function shown
ticular bus for tabulation. The bus with the highest real power
in (10), viz., GA [26] and PSO [27], [28].
loadability is assigned as the strongest and the one with the least
The following steps are proposed for the optimal sizing of the
loadability as the weakest bus. This proposed ranking algorithm
DGs:
has been depicted in the flowchart shown in Fig. 1.
1) System data and the resource data are taken as input and
In this work, each DG connected to the system is expected to
load flow analysis is performed with and without DG units.
have the capability to provide reactive power support and hence
2) Population size, length, and number of the variables, ini-
emphasis is given only to the effect of increase in real power de-
tial constants of the various optimization techniques, and
mand upon the bus voltages. The reactive power loadable limits
minimum and maximum limits (3) pertaining to the vari-
are not considered in this work.
ables are decided. In this problem, the number of variables
equals the number of DG sites . Each variable indicates B. Reconfiguration of Autonomous Micro-Grids
the size of each generator at a particular site.
In the proposed reconfiguration algorithm, TIE switches are
3) The function value (10) and the fitness value for each com-
placed near the locations identified as the strong and weak
bination of variables (particle position in PSO and chromo-
buses. The operation of the sectionalizing switches in the event
some in GA) are determined.
of faults may result in islanding of a section of the micro-grid.
4) Set of best solutions are upgraded as per the type of the
However, the proposed reconfiguration can minimize the for-
optimization technique viz., velocity and distance updation
mation of such larger islands and thereby improve the reliability
in PSO and crossover with mutation in GA.
of supply to major section of the micro-grid. A detailed study
5) If the values in any two consecutive iterations are the
of the switching of such sectionalizers in the operation of an
same, then the algorithm is deemed to have converged.
autonomous micro-grid has not been taken up in this work.
6) If convergence criterion is not satisfied, then steps 3 to 4
The TIE switches are normally open and are modified to close
are repeated, else terminated.
position for reconfiguration. Additional TIE branches are also
introduced in the existing radial distribution system for linking
IV. RECONFIGURATION STRATEGY strong and weak buses. All possible combinations of reconfig-
Having obtained the number of sites for DG placements uration are identified for deciding the best reconfigured option.
and their optimal sizes, the next step is to decide the modifi- For each of the possible configurations, load flow analysis
cations required in the structure of the network for sustainable is performed and the total real power distribution losses are
autonomous operation of the micro-grid. Distribution systems determined. After reconfiguration, the micro-grid structure re-
are provided with two types of switches namely sectionalizing sembles a weakly meshed system. Hence in this paper, Newton
KIRTHIGA et al.: METHODOLOGY FOR TRANSFORMING AN EXISTING DISTRIBUTION NETWORK 35

Fig. 2. Flowchart depicting the optimal reconfiguration algorithm.

architecture for transforming an existing radial distribution

system into a weakly meshed autonomous micro-grid is chosen
as that structure which has minimal losses as well as the one
which does not violate the voltage limits. In addition, the length
of the TIE lines is also considered (for bringing down the cost
of the TIE lines) for deciding the final configuration of the
micro-grid.
The algorithm followed for reconfiguration of autonomous
Fig. 1. Flowchart for the ranking algorithm based on maximum loadable levels micro-grids has been depicted in the flowchart shown in Fig. 2.
of real and reactive power demands.

V. CASE STUDY
Raphson-based load flow analysis for the reconfigured system
is carried out to check for voltage limit violations and for cal- The standard 33 bus distribution system, with a demand of
culation of line losses. The possible configurations are ranked 3.715 and 4.456 MW [15], [32], [33] in summer and winter,
based on distribution losses. respectively, has been adopted for the validation of the proposed
Consequent to this ranking, voltage limit violations are methodology. The base voltage and base MVA chosen for the
checked for each configuration. Hence the best reconfigured entire analysis are 12.66 kV and 100 MVA, respectively.
36 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, VOL. 4, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013

TABLE I
OPTIMAL NUMBER AND LOCATIONS OF THE DG UNITS

Fig. 3. Variation in the real power losses and the installation cost against the
number of DG locations in an autonomous micro-grid.

TABLE II
OPTIMAL SIZING OF THE DG UNITS BASED ON OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES

A. Optimal Number and Location of DG Units for Autonomous without violation of voltage limits is viz., 3rd bus, 9th bus, and
Micro-Grids 31st bus (as explained in Section II of the paper).
A detailed analysis has been carried out iteratively by varying
B. Optimal Sizing of DG Units For Autonomous Micro-Grids
the number of DG sites (i.e., number of DG units varying from
to taking one unit/site) in the given system. The The load flow analysis based on the forward and backward
net real power loss for each of the conditions (i.e., to sweep method has been adapted for determining the losses.
) is tabulated in Table I. The real power losses in kW and the These computed losses are utilized in (10) and optimal sizes
cost of installation of the DGs in 0.1 million dollars have been have been obtained by applying the nontraditional optimization
normalized on a ten point scale using (1) and the variation of techniques viz., GA and PSO and the values are tabulated in
the losses and cost of installation has been plotted against the Table II. The details of the parameters used in the optimization
number of DG units (i.e., for to ). techniques are given in the Appendix.
It has been noticed that, for the standard 33 bus distribution In both the nontraditional optimization techniques viz., GA
system adopted for validation, the curves depicting the variation and PSO, initial population has been randomly chosen and
in the distribution system losses and the installation cost are hence they are not the same. Though the number of units (sites)
contradictory in nature and hence cut each other at three DG is the same, the optimal sizes obtained for the DG units are
sites. Hence, for transforming the system under consideration found to be different. This difference is reflected in the compu-
into an autonomous micro-grid, DGs are to be placed in three tation of distribution losses and reconfiguration patterns. Since
locations for 100% penetration. Fig. 3 shows this variation and emphasis is given to the algorithm and the methodology, it is
validates the choice of three DGs as the optimal number of DG left to the discretion of the decision maker to choose the size
sites/units (considering one DG unit/site). among the two options. However, to demonstrate the adaptation
In this work, different types of DGs are assumed to be em- of GA and PSO for sizing, this paper utilizes the sizes obtained
ployed and hence different cost coefficients [ in (2)] are uti- from both the techniques for subsequent reconfiguration strate-
lized. All the DG units are expected to provide reactive power gies. The structure of the transformed autonomous micro-grid
support to maintain a constant power factor of 0.85 lagging at with the DG units located at optimal locations has been shown
each of their respective locations. in the Fig. 4.
Consequent to deciding the number of DGs sites (units) re-
quired, the optimal placement for the three DG units is taken C. Ranking of the Buses Based on Real Power Loadabilities
up. For all possible combinations of three locations, the op- After deciding the optimal placement (siting) of the DG units,
timal sizing algorithm is run and the corresponding losses have all buses of the system under investigation are tested for their
been recorded. It has been seen from Table I that for three DGs maximum withstanding capability of variations in real power
the optimal location pertaining to minimum distribution losses demand (following the flowchart shown in Fig. 1). Ranking
KIRTHIGA et al.: METHODOLOGY FOR TRANSFORMING AN EXISTING DISTRIBUTION NETWORK 37

Fig. 4. One line diagram of the autonomous micro-grid with optimally placed
DG units.

TABLE III
RANKING OF BUSES BASED ON MAXIMUM LEVELS OF REAL POWER DEMANDS Fig. 5. One line diagram of the autonomous micro-grid with optimal locations
for placing TIE switches for reconfiguration.

TABLE IV
CHOICE OF ALL POSSIBLE COMBINATIONS OF TIE SWITCHES

based on the maximum real power loadabilities of each of the

buses is performed and tabulated in Table III. The strongest and
the weakest buses are determined from the ranking.
Table III depicts that the 31st bus has the maximum load-
able real power demand which is expected due to the presence
of a generator. But all the top three strong buses are found to into an autonomous micro-grid. It is evident that such a recon-
be closely present on a sublateral. However, due to geograph- figuration transforms a radial network into a weakly meshed net-
ical distances between the buses, adding a TIE-line connecting work, thereby improving the reliability of service to customers.
the strongest and weakest buses does not guarantee reduction in A radial network operated as an autonomous micro-grid has
losses. Hence, based on the geographic considerations, the 33rd the possibility of formation of accidental islands due to the oc-
bus is ranked the strongest bus. currence of any electrical disturbances viz., line contingency
The other consecutive strong buses are chosen similarly as or line outage. In such an eventuality, a reconfigured weakly
30th and 27th, respectively. Similarly, the weak buses are also meshed network will prevent blackout of a major section of the
chosen as 12th, 25th, and 17th buses, respectively (considering network. In addition, such a reconfiguration also improves the
the proximity towards the strong buses). Thus a heuristic alter- voltage profile and hence will bring down the distribution losses.
ation of the ranking in the top and bottom three ranks of Table III The proposed algorithm for optimal reconfiguration of au-
is carried out for reducing the length of the TIE branches. As a tonomous micro-grids, depicted in Fig. 2, has been attempted.
result, six locations have been chosen (three for strong and three The list of all possible combinations of TIE connections (be-
for weak buses, respectively) for placing the TIE switches to tween a strong and a weak bus), have been tabulated in Table IV.
enable additional distribution lines between these locations for A total of 27 combinations has been identified as geographically
different possible reconfigurations. The choice of the optimal feasible for placing additional TIE branches. Reconfiguration
locations for the TIE switches by including geographical prox- based on appropriate switching of TIE switches is effected and
imity helps to compensate the additional cost incurred on in- the total real power distribution losses have been evaluated for
cluding the TIE lines. The optimal locations chosen for placing each of the possible combinations. Ranking of the configura-
TIE switches are shown in Fig. 5. tions based on the real power losses is tabulated in Table V (for
GA-based sizing of DGs) and in Table VI (for PSO-based sizing
D. Optimal Reconfiguration of Autonomous Micro-Grids of DGs).
The TIE-switches employed in the system based on ranking Tables V– VI depict the top five ranked combinations that
of buses are used in reconfiguring the radial distribution network satisfy the voltage constraints. The top two combinations high-
38 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, VOL. 4, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013

TABLE V
RANKING OFPOSSIBLE COMBINATIONS OF RECONFIGURATION FOR
GA-BASED OPTIMALLY SIZED GENERATORS

TABLE VI
RANKING OFPOSSIBLE COMBINATIONS OF RECONFIGURATION FOR
PSO-BASED OPTIMALLY SIZED GENERATORS Fig. 7. Voltage profile of the autonomous micro-grid before and after reconfig-
uration for PSO-based optimally sized DG units.

TABLE VII
COMPARISON OF BUS VOLTAGES IN PER UNIT BEFORE AND AFTER
RECONFIGURATION FOR GA- AND PSO-BASED OPTIMAL SIZING OF DG UNITS

Fig. 6. Voltage profile of the autonomous micro-grid before and after reconfig-
uration for GA-based optimally sized DG units.

lighted in the Tables V and VI are considered the best recon-

figured structure. Further analysis is performed on these short-
listed structures to choose the final optimal structure for the au-
tonomous micro-grid.

E. Voltage Profile Improvement

Flat voltage profile is found to be one of the important ad-
vantages of reconfiguring an autonomous micro-grid. The top
two ranked combinations of reconfiguration highlighted in the
Tables V–VI, have been chosen for analyzing the voltage profile
and it is seen from Figs. 6 and 7 that the profile becomes almost
flat on reconfiguration.
The voltage at each bus is found to improve considerably
on reconfiguration and the comparison is shown in Table VII.
In particular, there is a significant improvement in the voltage
magnitude of bus 18 (one of the terminal buses) after reconfig-
uration. Table VII also shows that voltage magnitude of all the
KIRTHIGA et al.: METHODOLOGY FOR TRANSFORMING AN EXISTING DISTRIBUTION NETWORK 39

TABLE VIII TABLE X

COMPARISON OFDISTRIBUTION LOSSES IN AUTONOMOUS MICRO-GRID COMPARISON OF ADDITIONAL COST INCURRED ON INSTALLATION
BEFORE AND AFTER RECONFIGURATION OF TIE LINES FOR GA- AND PSO-BASED OPTIMAL SIZING OF
DGs IN AUTONOMOUS MICRO-GRIDS

TABLE IX
COMPARISON OF TOTAL INSTALLATION COST FOR GA- AND PSO-BASED
OPTIMAL SIZING OF DGs IN AUTONOMOUS MICRO-GRIDS

Fig. 8. One line diagram of the reconfigured autonomous micro-grid with op-
timally placed DG units.

buses have improved considerably on introduction of DG units

in the distribution system and have further improved on recon- cost incurred on inclusion of extra TIE lines as per the top two
figuring the structure of the system. reconfiguration options (highlighted in Tables V and VI) are
shown in Table X.
F. Distribution Loss Reduction From the above tabulation, TIE lines between the buses
As compared to the distribution system fed from a substation 33–17, 27–25, 30–12 are the economic reconfiguration options
feeder (without DGs), an autonomous micro-grid has a reduc- resulting in minimal real power losses. Hence, the reconfigured
tion of its total real power loss by 79.6% (DGs sized using GA) structure of the existing standard 33 bus distribution systems
and 72.3% (DGs sized using PSO), respectively. It has also been for realizing a sustainable autonomous micro-grid is shown in
found that on reconfiguration, the real power losses are found Fig. 8.
to reduce further to 89.84% (sized using GA) and 88.3% (sized
using PSO) as compared to substation fed system. A detailed VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE
comparison on the reduction in the real and reactive power dis- This paper for the first time has proposed a comprehensive
tribution losses are shown in Table VIII. methodology for transforming an existing radial distribu-
tion system fed from a substation feeder to an autonomous
G. Economic Analysis of Reconfiguration of Autonomous micro-grid. A detailed objective function for converting an
Micro-Grids existing radial distribution network into an autonomous sus-
The cost of installation, including the reactive power gener- tainable micro-grid has been formulated. New techniques for
ation of the DG units in dollars per unit peak power generation determining the number of units required, siting and sizing
has been taken as $1125/kWp, $6000/kWp, and $700/kWp, re- of the units, and structure of the micro-grid have been devel-
spectively, for , , and . The comparison of the cost of oped. Two nontraditional optimization techniques have been
installation of the generators is shown in Table IX. employed separately for solving the sizing problem.
Due to installation of TIE lines that are connected to the orig- The efficacy of a partially heuristic paradigm developed in
inal radial distribution system, additional cost has to be incurred this work is amply demonstrated by the ease with which the
for reconfiguration. The rate of the additional TIE lines has been strongest and weakest buses in the system are identified and
taken as $32/km [34], [35]. Comparison of the total additional interconnected. The details of the paradigm are brought out by
40 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, VOL. 4, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013

this identification which is then used for reconfiguring the net- [9] M. H. Nehrir, C. Wang, K. Strunz, H. Aki, R. Ramakumar, J. Bing,
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KIRTHIGA et al.: METHODOLOGY FOR TRANSFORMING AN EXISTING DISTRIBUTION NETWORK 41

[31] M. R. Airashidi and M. E. El-hawary, “Emission-economic dis- S. Arul Daniel (M’10) received the B.E. degree from
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neering (CCECE), May 2006, pp. 664–669. and Ph.D. degrees from the Regional Engineering
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tonomous operation of a micro-grid,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Electrical with the Department of Electrical and Electronics
and Electronics Engineering (ELECO), 2009, pp. I-40–I-43. Engineering, National Institute of Technology,
[34] S. Sivanagaraju and J. V. Rao, “Optimal conductor selection in radial Tiruchirappalli, since 1994, where he is currently a
distibrution system using discrete particle swarm optimization,” World Professor. His areas of interest include distribution systems, hybrid renewable
J. Modeling Simulation, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 183–191, 2009. energy systems, distributed generation, and micro-grids.
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S. Gurunathan received the B.E. degree from the
M. Venkata Kirthiga received the B.E. degree from Government College of Engineering, Salem, (Anna
Bharathidasan University, India, and the M.Tech. University), India, and the M.Tech. degree from the
degree from the National Institute of Technology National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli,
Tiruchirappalli, India, in 2000 and 2004, respec- India, in 2009 and 2011, respectively.
tively. She is working toward the Ph.D. degree He is currently working as a Postgraduate Engineer
in distributed generation and micro-grids at the in the Product Engineering Department of WEG In-
National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli. dustries of India (P) Limited, Hosur, India. His areas
She is currently working as Assistant Professor in of interests include power systems, HVDC transmis-
the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engi- sion systems, and distribution systems.
neering, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirap-
palli. Her areas of interest include power systems,
HVDC transmission systems, distribution systems, and electrical machines.